Max Steinberg Family Consoled at Western Wall
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The family of the late American-Israeli soldier Max Steinberg visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Evie and Stuart Steinberg, and their remaining son and daughter, who came to Israel last week for the funeral of Max Steinberg, 24, a southern California native who was killed in Gaza in an attack on the armored personnel carrier in which he was riding, made their first visit to the Western Wall on Sunday night. The family was accompanied by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and his wife.
Stuart Steinberg recited the Mourners Kaddish at the wall in the presence of the Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz. Visitors to the wall surrounded the family to offer them condolences and praise for their son.
Steinberg was riding in the armored vehicle with six other members of the Golani Brigade when it was attacked by Hamas explosives. He was a sharpshooter in the elite brigade who had enlisted in the army several months after visiting Israel for the first time on a Birthright trip.
His mother, Evie, told Israel’s Channel 2 upon her arrival at Ben Gurion Airport that her son was “a hero.”
Steinberg’s parents had wanted to visit the Western Wall since it was where their son was sworn in to the Israel Defense Forces, according to Rabinowitz.
The Steinberg family expressed appreciation for the continued solidarity and support they have received from around the country since landing in Israel, at the funeral, for the period of mourning and at the Western Wall, Rabinowitz said in a statement.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
